6 weeks already!!!

I truly thought I would write more often.  I can't believe how tired I am.  And when I am hanging back at the campsite with John we enjoy playing cards and just being!  What I can tell you right now is that we are presently headed from Durango, Colorado to Ojo Caliente, New Mexico where we will spend 2 days.  Check out what we'll be doing there.  Ojo Caliente Spa Thanks to Kurt & Alex for recommending this place.  Though I don't think we'll be as lucky to see Hugh Jackman as they were.  Soaking in the healing springs for a couple of days sounds perfect.  We recently passed through Pagosa Springs, Co and there was the San Juan River Overlook, so we stopped briefly and across the river was another hot springs place, which freaking looked amazing too. I don't think I realized just how many hot springs places there are around. In fact there was another one down the street from our last campground in Durango.   

So far we have driven nearly 7000 miles.  We have been to 24 states (4 at one time when we visited 4 Corners).  We have 4 more (new ones) that we will get to before taking the same route home from KY - MA.  We have crossed the border and visited BC Canada.  We have slept in 13 states and 3 nights in Canada.  We have ridden several miles on our bikes (we loved Fort Stevens, OR, Zion National Park and Durango for the best bike rides.) And we have visited 5 National Parks, 5 State Parks, 3 National Monuments and SO MUCH MORE!!!

We have been in Durango for the last 6 days.  It's the longest we stayed anywhere and we are so glad we did. We did a lot and a little all at the same time.  Our first full day there we went to Mesa Verde National Park.  I was so proud of John for driving the RV up that very precarious ride.  He is not a fan of heights and this was steep and in an RV was a double whammy.  We tried to rent a car but without luck, so the RV it was.  We booked 2 tours of the cliff dwellings.  That was AMAZING.  But again with the heights John had to "put on his big boy pants" as he said.  Realllllly cool!!!  Even though he white knuckled the drive up and back (more than 20 miles each way) and had to deep breathe when he was climbing the ladders in the cliff dwellings he was super happy he did.  

Our campground was just 2 miles away from the amazing Animas River Trail.  It was about 9 miles long.  We rode that the next day and LOVED it.  So much to see and they set it up so you don't have to cross any roads.  So much beauty on this ride.  We enjoyed it so much we did it 2 other days, too.  We also took a train ride, which we could see from our campground too.  Though on that day we drove the RV to the center of town (we just weren't sure where to leave the bikes for 10 hours and we also didn't want to ride back in the dark).  So, we rode a bus to the town of Silverton, Co which is 9318 ft high, but that was in the valley - LOL. The bus took us much higher before we could get down there.  John chose the window seat which I think he regretted, but he was at least grateful to not be the one driving.  The town looked like one you'd see in an old western movie.  It was sweet.  When we booked the tour we decided on a mine tour, so we got off the bus onto a little bus to be driven to the mine.  We had a super tour guide named Bob.  He had worked in the mining industry for 20 years.  We also got to do a little panning for some "gems".  We were carted back down to town, where we got to walk around for about 45 minutes then we boarded the narrow gauge Durango-Silverton Train and enjoyed a 3.5 hour train ride back.  Originally we had planned to do the train there and back, but the schedule didn't fit ours, so I got lucky enough to find this tour.  And we were grateful, cuz the 3.5 hours was LONG!!!  The train goes about 20 miles per hour and some places are dicey.  Lots of beautiful views.  We purposely didn't sit in the open train car cuz I thought it would be cold, but with about an hour left I decided to go stand there and promptly wished we had gone in that car.  Not cold and the fresh air was nice and you could move easier.  It truly was a nice ride though.  On the river trail path it partially abuts the rail so we got to enjoy some of those views (at least in Durango) in different ways.

It's funny because we had planned to go to Colorado then opted not to because John really didn't want to drive in the mountains, but then we started to look at our schedule and opted to forgo Carlsbad Cavern National Park which was a good 12 hours south of us to keeping the route more north and so here was driving in the mountains and rocking it!!!

Below are a few pics of the view from the drive.

white knuckling it 

Breathing for a moment before climbing down to Cliff Palace below!  

Distant view of Cliff Palace

So crazy to be down there and seeing it up close.

We thought this would be the only ladder we'd be climbing and it was for this dwelling.

On a drive to the next dwelling.

                                                           

 

Now on to Balcony House.  We are standing on the road and it is literally below us.  If you look at the pic below you can see where the cars are above

                       

a stock photo from someone else, but it's a distant view of Balcony House.

 

This is from the National Park Service.  I have referenced our pics to these numbers below

About to head down.

                                                  

still active spring

                               

#1 in the pic above

John and the guide climbing that ladder

top of that ladder

Only a tiny ladder to climb, then through the back.

#2 in the pic above

#3 in the pic above

#4 in the pic above

This is pretty much the end of our time in Mesa Verde.  Except for John white knuckling it on the drive down.  I'll do a new blog for the rest of our stay in Colorado.